Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.fietser_ivana
05-22-02, 03:37 PM
That is how I felt at the end of Monday's ride on Whitsun Monday, when the Eleven City Tour was held in Friesland.
The most famous 11 city tour is for speed skaters, but this event, naturally, can only happen when hell, um Friesland freezes over, so it is understandable that with the advent of a higher popularity of skating, the cycling event has also become more popular.
A friend of mine, who normally doesn't ride any long distance events, had set her mind on completing the 11 city tour, which is 240 km in length. To make sure she and her friends could start,they ordered more cards than necessary.
So, they ended up with 2 more cards. One for me, and one for another cycling friend: Kieg, a 75y.o. (I guess) who's addicted to sport.
It was to be my first event of over 200K or more of this year, as I had not done any cycling at all for 3 months since I was injured late Feb.
It was an amazing event in many ways. First of all, the number of people participating: 12 000 cyclists no less! And about 1/4th to 1/3rd of them was either on regular bicycles , be it a single- or 3-speed sit-up-and- beg bike, a more sporty bike or a touring bike. The rest was , as usual on a road bike.
It was unusual in other aspects as well. Normally, such a tour is done without much attention from onlookers. Now we had brass bands playing in most towns, people watching and cheering for us, or simply showing the right direction.
Small kids holding out hands to be slapped and sometimes water pistols to make us wet.
We cycled through those 11 'cities' (actually villages) and a lot more small towns. The upside were the lovely little houses and impressive architecture from ancient Friesian strongholds against barbarians and robbers. The downside was the gruelling ride over varying surfaces, with cobble stones as the worst, which led to many a curse from myself, unused to stuch cruel treatment of my dear backside! Plus of course, far, far, far too many bike paths, which led to too many scary maneouvres by hasty cyclists wanting to pass where this was hardly possible.
But as said, it was worth it, because of the special atmosphere, quite similar to what we experienced during Paris-Brest-Paris.
The other downside was that I wasn't prepared for the beautiful weather and have developed a cooked lobster colour.. very painful burning sking, which I'm still treating with ice-cold water showers.
A major boost to my ego was that I performed better than on quite a few brevets. Apparently I do better during rides with a lot of participants as I have more chances to chat with other people during the ride and don't feel as lonely and compelled to treat myself to a nice long break at controls. Since I was unsure whether I would be able to finish in time, I kept riding, expecting a collapse later on, which never came. We had no less than 15 controls which were unevenly spaced (sometimes only 8 K after another, and one with 37 K in between) and every time I moved on almost right away, so the total off- bike time probably didn't exceed 1 hour,albeit I had to get off the bike at every control because of the crowds.
I can't check, sinc my computer didn't work, so I was just relying on a time-schedule I'd made the night before for paces of 18-17-16 and 15 km/hr including breaks. I managed to stay inside the 18km/hr limit, which is quite decent, considering the fact that it was the first 200K ride since 1999.
I'm afraid that I'll have forgotten the sore bottom by next year and might want to try my luck again... but hopefully someone will talk me out of it... PBP is a lot safer! Still, I don't think there will be many clowns doing PBP or ordinary people doing very extra-ordinary things once a year.. While 240K is a long distance, some people still manage to ride that distance without any training whatsover!
Perhaps it's better suited to be watched rather than do it yourself? But I'd recommend anyone to give it a try at least once, even though you'll be severely disappointed by the poor surface quality and lack of cycling skills/civility of participants. But the superb atmosphere and the really interesting little cities as well as nice countryside (especially along the IJssel Lake) make up for it!
Fietser
The most famous 11 city tour is for speed skaters, but this event, naturally, can only happen when hell, um Friesland freezes over, so it is understandable that with the advent of a higher popularity of skating, the cycling event has also become more popular.
A friend of mine, who normally doesn't ride any long distance events, had set her mind on completing the 11 city tour, which is 240 km in length. To make sure she and her friends could start,they ordered more cards than necessary.
So, they ended up with 2 more cards. One for me, and one for another cycling friend: Kieg, a 75y.o. (I guess) who's addicted to sport.
It was to be my first event of over 200K or more of this year, as I had not done any cycling at all for 3 months since I was injured late Feb.
It was an amazing event in many ways. First of all, the number of people participating: 12 000 cyclists no less! And about 1/4th to 1/3rd of them was either on regular bicycles , be it a single- or 3-speed sit-up-and- beg bike, a more sporty bike or a touring bike. The rest was , as usual on a road bike.
It was unusual in other aspects as well. Normally, such a tour is done without much attention from onlookers. Now we had brass bands playing in most towns, people watching and cheering for us, or simply showing the right direction.
Small kids holding out hands to be slapped and sometimes water pistols to make us wet.
We cycled through those 11 'cities' (actually villages) and a lot more small towns. The upside were the lovely little houses and impressive architecture from ancient Friesian strongholds against barbarians and robbers. The downside was the gruelling ride over varying surfaces, with cobble stones as the worst, which led to many a curse from myself, unused to stuch cruel treatment of my dear backside! Plus of course, far, far, far too many bike paths, which led to too many scary maneouvres by hasty cyclists wanting to pass where this was hardly possible.
But as said, it was worth it, because of the special atmosphere, quite similar to what we experienced during Paris-Brest-Paris.
The other downside was that I wasn't prepared for the beautiful weather and have developed a cooked lobster colour.. very painful burning sking, which I'm still treating with ice-cold water showers.
A major boost to my ego was that I performed better than on quite a few brevets. Apparently I do better during rides with a lot of participants as I have more chances to chat with other people during the ride and don't feel as lonely and compelled to treat myself to a nice long break at controls. Since I was unsure whether I would be able to finish in time, I kept riding, expecting a collapse later on, which never came. We had no less than 15 controls which were unevenly spaced (sometimes only 8 K after another, and one with 37 K in between) and every time I moved on almost right away, so the total off- bike time probably didn't exceed 1 hour,albeit I had to get off the bike at every control because of the crowds.
I can't check, sinc my computer didn't work, so I was just relying on a time-schedule I'd made the night before for paces of 18-17-16 and 15 km/hr including breaks. I managed to stay inside the 18km/hr limit, which is quite decent, considering the fact that it was the first 200K ride since 1999.
I'm afraid that I'll have forgotten the sore bottom by next year and might want to try my luck again... but hopefully someone will talk me out of it... PBP is a lot safer! Still, I don't think there will be many clowns doing PBP or ordinary people doing very extra-ordinary things once a year.. While 240K is a long distance, some people still manage to ride that distance without any training whatsover!
Perhaps it's better suited to be watched rather than do it yourself? But I'd recommend anyone to give it a try at least once, even though you'll be severely disappointed by the poor surface quality and lack of cycling skills/civility of participants. But the superb atmosphere and the really interesting little cities as well as nice countryside (especially along the IJssel Lake) make up for it!
Fietser